40 lakhs commuters expected ply on the trains

A Rs.62,943 crore infrastructure upgrade is underway by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for Mumbai and its suburbs including the 157-km metro network.

The MMRDA is implementing two metro corridors – the 18.5-km Andheri (East) to Dahisar (East) with 17 stations, and the 16.5-km Dahisar (West) to DN Nagar with 16 stations.

Construction work will start on three more corridors next year. These are DN Nagar to Mandale Metro-2B, Wadala-Ghatkopar-Thane-Kasarvadavali Metro-4 and Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli (via JVLR) Metro-6.

The 23.5-km Metro-2B corridor with 22 stations is expected to cost Rs.10,986 crore, the 32-km Metro-4 corridor with 32 stations would cost Rs.14,549 crore and the 14.5-km-long Metro-6 corridor with 13 stations will cost about Rs.5,566 crore.

The MMRDA will undertake four more metro corridors. The 24-km Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan Metro-5 Corridor with 17 stations (costing about Rs.8,417 crore), 8-km Wadala to GPO Metro-8 corridor (Rs.2,400 crore), 9-km Andheri (E) to Bandra (E) Metro-9 Corridor (Rs. 4,500 crore) and 11-km Dahisar (East) to Mira-Bhayandar Metro-10 corridor (Rs.3,908 crore).

More than 40 lakh commuters are expected to travel on these metros from more than 160 metro stations in the city and the metropolitan region. Their completion is expected in 2021.

MMRDA metropolitan commissioner U P S Madan expects people of Mumbai to switch to public transport, leaving their motor vehicles at home. fii-news.com